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Archived Director's Messages
Click here to chose another archived messages. DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE
2006 No 1 March
By now your first term for 2006 will be well under way. At the Teachers Council, we too are well into finalising our strategic plan for 2006-2009. On the 6 March, the Minister of Education launched the revised edition of Towards Full Registration at Rangikura School, Porirua. The Teachers Council strongly believes that the period of provisional registration should be a key focus for our professional leadership role. I will be keeping you informed of other significant work we are planning to support this initiative. Having recently attended an international conference for teaching councils in Melbourne, it is apparent that New Zealand is at the forefront of professional leadership and support for the teaching profession. Increasingly, governments and education bodies internationally are stressing not only the importance of the role of teaching, and the difference good teachers make to learning and life chances of children and young people, but also how intellectually and emotionally challenging this profession is. The work we have done so far with stakeholders in drafting the 'graduating teacher standards' really brings home the complexity of the task in articulating the professional role of teachers to the New Zealand public:What is it that a graduating teacher should know, be able to do, and be disposed to do as a member of the teaching profession? This consultation draft is available on the web and has been distributed widely. We would value your comments and feedback on this draft.
In this message:
Policy DevelopmentsGood Character and Fitness to be a Teacher –- Policy Consultation The first round of consultation with stakeholder organisations has concluded for this draft policy and the responses are currently being analysed for the March Council meeting. It was evident that many stakeholders took a great deal of time over the discussion documents and draft policy and the responses were at times considerably varied. Many welcomed the opportunity to be involved in the policy detail and the Council appreciated the views expressed. It is possible that a second round of consultation will take place in order to reconsider some of the key issues that have been raised, prior to a final draft being circulated for comment. Limited Authority to Teach (LAT) - Survey of Professional Leaders A review of this policy is currently underway and as a part of this the Council are exploring the issues from the point of view of the professional leader. To this end, a confidential questionnaire has been sent during March to approximately 700 professional leaders who employed a person on a LAT in 2005. Questions have been framed around such topics as the profile of those persons holding a LAT, key teaching subjects, the policy issues and any suggestions for addressing those issues. It also asks those professional leaders if they think the Council should set a minimum qualification standard for a person holding a LAT and, if so, what they consider it should be. We have had an excellent response already and have begun processing these. Thank you for those very prompt replies! A summary of findings will be available for those respondents and interested parties on request.
Standards for Graduating TeachersOne of the requirements of the Education Standards Act (2001) was for the Council to support professional leadership in schools and early childhood settings through the establishment of a new set of standards for teacher education qualifications. These standards will describe what a teacher, at the point of graduation will know, understand, be able to do and the dispositions they need to become effective teachers. As described in the August 2005 edition of the Director's Message, the Teachers Council has been working with stakeholders throughout 2005 to develop a draft set of these standards. We are now at the point where a draft has been distributed throughout the education community for consultation and feedback. In early March, copies of the Graduating Standards and an accompanying commentary were distributed to 235 individuals and stakeholder groups. You can view these documents on our website and you may wish to contribute to the consultation. Comments or thoughts that you wish to share with the Council will be gratefully received, considered and responded to. The process of achieving a draft set of standards to guide initial teacher education in all sectors produced some vigorous debate. We are looking forward to continuing this discussion throughout the next stages of consultation.
Third Issue of ForTeachers; Mō NgāKaiwhakaakoThe third issue of our hard-copy newsletter features:
You should receive your copies of this newsletter before the end of March. The Secondary Principals' Council has suggested that professional leaders circulate it by email to all staff (it can be viewed at www.teacherscouncil.govt.nz). Any queries or responses should go to comms@teacherscouncil.govt.nz. Each edition will feature an article on a different sector or setting in which our 90,000 registered teachers are teaching. We believe it is important to build understanding and appreciation amongst teachers of the different sectors of the profession.
Towards Full Registration ResourceThe revised edition of this resource was recently launched by the Teachers Council at Rangikura School in Porirua. Copies have been distributed to all schools, Māori medium and early childhood education services and to other relevant organisations. As the professional leader, I would ask you to ensure that these two steps have been taken with the resource: firstly, read the sections that apply particularly to your own responsibilities in the process of supporting provisionally registered teachers; and secondly, ensure that the resource is placed with a person or in a location where all the other parties involved in supporting PRTs can have easy access to the information it contains. This should include the PRTs themselves! You will be very aware that these two years of learning the 'how to' of teaching and relating this practice to the important knowledge gained during initial teacher education, is often a 'make or break' time for newly qualified teachers. The good foundation provided by your school or service will help these teachers become highly valued members of the profession who want to stay in teaching.
The PRT Support Grant for Early Childhood Education ServicesAs most early childhood services are by now aware, the Ministry of Education has made available a support grant for provisionally registered early childhood teachers. The intent of this grant, paid directly to the employing early childhood service, is to encourage and support permanently employed provisionally registered teachers in achieving full registration. Section 4.2 of the Early Childhood Education Funding Handbook (2005) makes clear the eligibility criteria, record keeping and reporting requirements for services claiming this funding. An important point to note is that if the Ministry finds that a service has not used the grant to support a teacher to full registration, or if a significant portion of the grant has remained unused, it will consider reclaiming this money from the service. The staff at the Teachers Council receive many phone calls from provisionally registered teachers and their employers, querying appropriate uses of this money (currently $3762 per annum per provisionally registered teacher). While it is not possible to provide an exhaustive list, some possible uses that are clearly linked to supporting the provisionally registered teacher achieve full registration include:
On the other hand, using the support grant to pay for an upgrade of qualifications (for example from a diploma of teaching to a degree, or from a degree to a postgraduate qualification) is unlikely to be viewed by the Ministry as appropriate. This is because the provisionally registered teacher already holds a qualification that entitles them to full registration; they do not need the upgrade to achieve this. Regular three-way discussions between employer, provisionally registered teacher, and tutor teacher/mentor will be very helpful in determining the type of support, and thus the prioritising of the support grant money, that will best help the teacher achieve full registration.
In Conclusion:I welcome comment and feedback from you on any of these matters or other issues you may wish to raise with me. You may contact me at peter.lind@teacherscouncil.govt.nz. Peter Lind Director This document can be downloaded in PDF format by right clicking here and choosing 'save target as'
Click on a date below to view archived messages from the director. July 2008 March 2008 | November 2007 | July 2007 | 12 April 2007 | 12 Feb 2007 | 11 Dec 2006 | 6 Dec 2006 | 2 May 2006 | 6 Mar 2006 | 6 Dec 2005 | 31 Oct 2005 | 31 Aug 2005 | 30 Jun 2005 | 6 Jun 2005 | 5 May 2005 | 15 Dec 2004 | 3 Nov 2003 |
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